CHAIR OF

PUBLIC ECONOMICS

This paper analyses the relationship between a husband’s job loss and marital stability, focusing on involuntary employment terminations due to plant closures or dismissals. Using discrete survival analysis techniques on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we find plant closures and dismissals to be associated with a 54 and 74% higher risk of marital dissolution respectively, though the strength of association varies significantly by how long ago the change in employment status occurred. We extend the previous literature by considering heterogeneity in the relationship depending on whether new employment was found. Our analysis shows that the dissolution risk remains elevated even in couples where the husband has taken up a new position. Surprisingly, the relative risk of dissolution following the first period in a new job after a job loss is about the same as the relative risk of dissolution following the first period without employment. The relationship between finding a new job and marital dissolution appears to be mediated by changes in working hours as well as wages. In two extensions, we also consider the role of the wife’s employment status in moderating the relationship and show that a wife’s job loss is not associated with a similar increase in the probability of divorce as a husband’s.

The publication can be found hier.

In this paper, I estimate extended income equivalence scales from income satisfaction and time-use data contained in the German Socio-Economic Panel. Designed to capture the needs of additional household members, these scales account for both, increases in households’ money income and domestic production requirements. The estimation procedure determines equivalence weights in these two components separately by combing the subjective with the objective approach. The findings suggest greater monetary equivalence weights for adults than for children, whereas household production increases more strongly in the number of children than in the presence of an adult partner. Differences in relative needs tend to balance out in the extended income equivalence scale, assigning additional adults and children almost identical weights of about 45%. I illustrate the implications of these estimates for measures of income inequality using the same dataset.

The publication can be found here.

Die sehr negativen Prognosen zur Beschäftigungswirkung der Einführung des Mindestlohns in Deutschland hätten sich nicht bewahrheitet, schrieben Oliver Bruttel, Arne Baumann und Matthias Dütsch in den PWP 3/2019. Andreas Knabe, Ronnie Schöb und Marcel Thum halten dem in diesem Beitrag entgegen, dass sich Prognosen und tatsächliche Beschäftigungswirkungen des Mindestlohns gar nicht wesentlich unterscheiden. Zum einen hätten sich die Beschäftigungsverluste bisher stark in einer Reduktion der Zahl der Arbeitsstunden je Beschäftigten niedergeschlagen. Zum anderen erhielten weiterhin viele Arbeitnehmer weniger als den Mindestlohn, was die bislang messbaren negativen Beschäftigungswirkungen mindere.

The publication can be found here.

This paper examines factors that can explain substantial differences in the employment rate of several disabled people between the German federal states from 2003 to 2015. It puts special emphasis on the situation in Saxony-Anhalt, which had the lowest employment rate of disabled persons nationwide during this time. The multivariate statistical analysis provides evidence that the degree of compliance with the compulsory employment quote is determined by socio-demographic rather than economic characteristics of the states. Within the specified model, the main determinant of the employment rate appears to be the share of (registered) severely disabled people in the population.

The publication can be found here.

We estimate household equivalence scales, i.e. the needs of additional adults and children relative to a single adult, using income satisfaction data from the German Socio-Economic Panel. We extend previous studies applying this approach by taking reference income into account. This allows separating needs-based from reference effects in the determination of income satisfaction. We show that this adjustment helps to overcome a bias causing an overestimation of adults' and an underestimation of children's needs-based equivalence weights. Our results indicate that controlling for income comparisons substantially increases children's equivalence weight relative to that of adults.

The publication can be found here.